


I've got my heart set

by litspinels



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-22 08:57:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17659727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litspinels/pseuds/litspinels





	I've got my heart set

 

She did not find him on the balcony where he usually smoked.

 

He wasn’t in the gym, or in the Analysis lab, either. She thought he’d be at the cafeteria in the middle of the afternoon but he wasn’t there, and she had the audacity to try his room but to no avail. It was one of the rare days when their shifts were not the same and there was more time trying to finish paperwork rather than going out in the field. These were the kind of days that Masaoka-san always mentioned as something to look forward to, when breaks were longer than thirty minutes and everyone was pretty much allowed to do anything they want once all the work was done. Two hours more till her shift ended and she found herself searching for someone to talk to. Why it had to be him was more a question she reserved for herself, and something she would want to answer in another time.

 

The doors to the outdoor pool had opened automatically when she passed it; catching her attention when her nostrils caught a whiff of cigarette smoke in the air. Not a lot of people smoked in the CID, and this one was a particular brand she had come to associate him with. Carrying the two cans of coffee she had bought from the vending machine, Akane steps outside just in time for the sunset on that side of the building, and finds Kogami sitting on a bench on the side of the pool.

 

He acknowledges her presence with a nod, lifting the finger with a cigarette as a supplementary greeting.

 

Akane approaches him, placing the cans of coffee next to him before taking a seat. She casts a glance at the pool and watches the light dance on the surface.

 

“Not busy, either, I see.”

 

“Yes. I’ve finished all my paperwork,” she replied, feeling a little strange that she was reporting to him somewhat. “I guess I’m glad of the downtime. It feels like it’s been a long month already.”

 

He regards her with a smile, flicking his cigarette on the ash tray beside him. “A few months could put years on you, for sure.”

 

Akane turns her head to survey him from the chest up. “I don’t see you looking very old, though.”

 

“And here I am trying to figure out if that was a light jab or a compliment,” he chuckles. “For me?” he points at the can of coffee. She nods before standing up to walk towards the pool. It hadn’t been two months since they were here last, with the rest of the team. Back then she had been anxious, spending an awful amount of time stretching alone and doing nothing much except actually swim. She briefly remembers not having to step inside the pool at all; in fact most of the time she had spent talking with Kogami. It had been a challenge when she started, not really understanding how to approach the man. He was still somewhat of a mystery to him, but the time she’d spent working with him she was now able to tell that was genuinely kind; something that, in her naivety she had questioned based on what she knew about his crime coefficient and his standing in society.

 

“Say…” she had taken a seat on the edge of the pool, soaking her feet in the water. He watched her from where he sat while she struggled to take off her stockings—she should have taken them off before getting her legs wet, he thought, as she reaches to her side to unzip her skirt. She skillfully pulls down the fabric underneath, his gaze focused on her back as she wriggles and lifts herself off the ground. The effort was so admirable that he smirks when she succeeds, peeling the wet fabric down her legs with a triumphant “ha!” before placing it next to her and fixing her skirt.

 

“Yes?” he responds, reminding her of what she was supposed to say. This shakes her out of her reverie; seeming to have forgotten for a moment that she wasn’t alone in that place.

 

Akane contemplates for a moment before she reels in her hesitation and opens her mouth to speak.

 

“Did you know back then that I couldn’t swim?” she asks without turning to him. It was hard not to wonder considering instead of having to join the commotion in the pool during the welcome party, her time was spent mostly with him, whether it was intentional or not. For that she was thankful, knowing she wasn’t confident enough to let others know about her predicament—she still wasn’t.

 

Kogami approached, taking her coffee with him. He places it in front of her face and she takes it, opening the can and taking a sip while he slips out of his shoes and takes off his socks. She almost protests when he soaked his own legs in the water, reaching far beyond where her feet were thanks to his height, the water spreading through his pants like he didn’t care the slightest.

 

“Oh, I’m not as good an observer as Professor Saiga. I had thought you were more uncomfortable wearing a swimsuit, actually.”

 

Akane tilts her head to the side, willing her mind to brush off his words. “I was just as uncomfortable wearing something to use for an action I couldn’t associate myself with.”

 

“If you don’t mind, is there any reason why you don’t know how?” Kogami takes his empty coffee can and places his cigarette inside, keenly observing her for any signs of discomfort.

 

“Well… when I was younger I almost drowned when I tried to go farther from the shore by myself. I was on a floater, the ones that look like donuts that you just slip inside of. While trying to get away I noticed that it was becoming hard for my feet to feel the ground that I was walking on, but I still pushed and pushed till my grandmother, who had been preparing a sandwich for me, was only the size of my finger. In my attempt to try to feel the ground I slipped out of my floater and had nothing to hang on to so I just… went down.”

 

She had let out a shudder, but he didn’t think she noticed.

 

“My grandmother caught me just in time… but I think after that I couldn’t go anywhere near a body of water, unless if it was an aquarium. My grandmother always took me there to help me shake off the bad experience by showing me how beautiful creatures live in the water. I had grown to love sea creatures, but I never attempted to learn how to swim since then.”

 

“I see. Do you think you would want to learn, still?” he asks, taking off his jacket. She pretends not to hear the question, though in their proximity this was near impossible. Besides, she knows he knows that she heard him just fine, and right now, loosening his tie, he was merely waiting for an answer.

 

Akane huffs, seemingly at a loss at the sudden decision she has to make. Kogami places his necktie on top of his suit jacket, and lowers himself slowly into the water. He noticed her eyes follow his feet below the surface. Only when he had both planted firmly at the bottom did she look at his face.

 

“It’s not that bad,” he extends his hand to her, soaked shirt and all. “Just think it’s a bigger bathtub.”

 

She couldn’t resist her giggle at the comparison, heart racing at the thought of suddenly wanting to do something she had feared for such a long time. He doesn’t make a move to persuade her, only patiently waits as she once again surveys the bottom of the pool where his feet were.

 

“I’ll tell you now that you might not reach the bottom of it.”

 

She shudders, this time he knows she has noticed the reaction of her own body.

 

“But I can promise you that I won’t let you slip.” Kogami steps in front of her till he was close enough to have to look up, extending his hand once more. Akane looks straight into his eyes, and in a silent moment he watches her gaze change from that of fear to something akin to a leap of faith.

 

She takes off her jacket and reaches for his hand; he could feel the tension in the way she gripped, strong and positively nervous at the same time. The water is cold, for starters, though partly he blames this for not fully submerging his head when he stepped in. He pulls her from the safety of the edge of the pool into his arms; Akane clings to him with both arms wound tightly around his neck and her legs kicking frantically beneath the water. He puts a hand on the back of her neck and the other in the middle of her back, a gentle hold to contrast with her sudden unease. He could feel her heart wildly beating against his chest as she subconsciously attempts to keep herself above the water with closed eyes.

 

“I got you, I got you…” he whispers, slowly stepping away from the edge of the pool. The movement puts her off guard and she almost lets out a sob; he runs his hand soothingly over her back, her eyes crack open and she realizes how close they really are when his lips almost brush against hers. “I got you,” she hears him say again.

 

Akane takes a deep breath, feeling her eyes water at the sudden cold seeping through her body. Kogami doesn’t stop moving till they reach the middle of the pool, and by the time they did her teeth were chattering.

 

“I need to soak us, so that you’ll feel less cold. Is that okay?” he spoke against her cheek. The thought of being submerged made her teeth chatter even more.

 

“I’ll hold you, and it will only last for seconds. If not I need to get you out of here or you might catch a cold.”

 

It was only then that she had noticed she wasn’t kicking her feet anymore; that she was actually floating by the help of his arms. She nods, slowly, and he mistakes it for the second option that he was offering and begins to move back to the end of the pool.

 

“N-no!” she chokes, pulling him even closer.

 

He pauses, in both his walk and his thoughts, as he is reminded suddenly of where there were and who he was with. Akane Tsunemori was his superior, young inspector eight years his junior; bright-eyed and very intelligent, a person who believes in good, and fights for it. No, she was not just some boss who did things by the book. From the first moment she had pulled the trigger to stop him from acting violently against someone, she had begun to represent everything he had once believed in and thought lost—and now he wants to protect her more than he wishes to protect everyone else.

 

“Kogami-san?”

 

Her voice brings him back to present, and he briefly understood what she had wanted before he got lost in his own thoughts. He brings a hand on top of her head before bending his knees to submerge the two of them in the water. Once again she tightens her hold on him and he supports with a firm hold before taking her back up the surface.

 

It had only been seconds, just like he had said, but she was shaking and she knows this had nothing to do with the water. He looks at her and asks something she knew to be a yes or no question, her faculties fail and she merely answers with a nod, only becoming aware when they sink beneath the pool once more.

 

He bends lower and she panicked for a moment, before the soles of her feet felt the cold tile that was the floor of the pool. Instead of clinging to him like she was desperate and scared, she closes her eyes and relaxes; this time feeling the difference of the weight of his arms around her, and the contrasting warmth of his body. It had felt longer than the last, and before they rose above she feels his lips brush ever so slightly against hers—so soft that her eyes cracked open the moment they reached the surface for fear of her merely imagining it.

 

He looked as if he had been sleeping; the only difference was that his hand still ran soothingly down her back. Nothing had changed, not her madly beating heart or her breathless state due to fear; if he decides to let her slip she will drown and maybe reach the bottom again in her sorry state. Yet he does not relinquish his hold, and her heart was busy trying to calm itself over something entirely different, her breath coming in short puffs against his cheek.

 

Akane tightens her grip on his shoulders, believing what she had always known that it had not been a mistake to trust him. For now, she decides that the water was not so cold, and that his embrace was more than enough. 

 

“It’s not too bad, isn’t it?” he whispers, leaning on her and bringing her even closer.

 

“Not at all…” she replies, closing her eyes. “Not at all.”


End file.
